This just keeps getting easier and easier. This week I did less cookbook recipes and more "regular" foods I had in the house. I always have Morning Star Farms meatless foods in the house since Jordan is allergic to all meats, poultry, and fish. I know there's a lot of good/bad press out there on soy products, but she can't just eat beans and nuts for protein every day. Anyway, Morning Star Farms is the only company I've ever found with vegetarian products that taste really, really good. They also make foods that resemble what you're replacing so you never feel like your missing out, for example, they make meatless versions of chicken patties, hamburgers, steak strips, chicken nuggets, ribs, breakfast sausage, bacon, etc. When I don't feel like cooking, it's great to just make a pre-made food like that, add some veggies, or a low carb wrap, or put it on a salad - easy, I just don't abuse the soy. I have maybe one or two items a week, out of 35 meals & snacks. Not too bad. Trader Joe's also makes a great Chili Lime Chicken Burger. They're in a frozen 4 pack, not too high in calories, fats, nor grams - so you can make them go either S or E depending on what you do with it.
I also am trying to pull away from the bad habit of getting on the scale every day. I know I lost a healthy 2 pounds this week, about 12 total in 3 weeks, That's better than all the other exercise and diet programs I've tried.
One of the Trim Healthy Mama things I love seeing in their social media posts are the NSV, Non-Scale Victories. That's when maybe your scale doesn't seem to be moving hardly at all, but you still find obvious benefits like a before & after photo shows you much smaller, or someone who no longer needs meds for high cholesterol or blood pressure, or dropping a few clothing sizes. I know a lot of women get frustrated when the scale isn't moving even when they're doing everything according to plan. That frustration can easily lead to an emotional justification of a "treat". Psychologically, you're not getting that happiness from a lower scale number, so your mind wants one even if it comes from somewhere else. Then the guilt settles in over "cheating", then you justify the whole day is blown, and before you know it, you're entirely off your plan. With NSVs, you can avoid this by not focusing on a number, but on various positives along the way.
This week, as I enter week 4, I'm going to go back to cookbook recipes now that the house is pretty cleared out and I have ingredients for the recipes I like the most, plus a few new ones I want to try. Maybe the way to stay on plan the best (for a lifetime) will turn out to be 1 to 2 weeks of lots of cookbook recipes, then a week of less of them so I can incorporate a few foods not in the cookbook, yet still are okay for THM eating.
I'm most excited about being 100% sugar free for 21 days, and in 3 weeks I believe I've only had 2 slices of naturally sprouted Ezekiel bread (on plan) and about 3 low carb tortillas (also on plan). Everything else in the baked category has been gluten-free, so I know there's tons of health benefits going on inside my body I haven't even realized yet. Best of all, I know I'll have better health in the future because of my choice to remove sugar and gluten from my diet now. Have a great rest of your week, make it a good one.
